With a loan, even though the property ends up costing double in the long run, only a fraction of the purchase has to come from your pocket as long as you run the numbers before purchasing and you get a good deal. 

Real Estate is an investment that has the ability to deliver excellent returns because the cash down payment is such a small fraction compared to the return on the retail value .

Even if you do have a low CTR rate cause you are in these lower positions, the idea is the more auctions you show up on the more chances you have of getting clicks and spending that full budget.Contrary to popular belief, which is just showing up #1 for every keyword, statistically speaking if you only show a couple of times in those high positions you end up getting 1 click and lets say you have a 4% conversation rate your going to have to get a lot of those really expensive clicks in order to get a conversion but if your bidding at a fraction of the rate your going to get a lot more traffic.

Even the commercial - I don't see your amounts but even if wholely owned commercial is out of the question there are ways to get into a fractional ownership of the same type product.I'm sensing that for you it would be better to evaluate them in light of the following1.

Within the city of Austin and other local markets with limited inventory, homes are spending a fraction of time on the market—as little as two weeks in some areas.

I'm sure some people have good working relationships with contracts and know guys that'll do it for a fraction of that and if you do the legwork / grunt work yourself you'll save money yadda, yadda, yadda.

I am in Harris County Texas, more specifically the city of Katy,TX where public works, school districts and such are part of the tax bill PLUS additional fraction of a percent directly to the city.The appraisal district has a particular portfolio of properties all assessed at significantly lower than what like property potentially would be valued at.

A contractor who wants to live in the property can fix it up for a fraction of the cost plus they aren't looking to resell for an immediate profit so they don't need the price to be nearly as low.While a flipper might demand that the property be 70% below ARV minus repairs, and holding costs, and resale costs, and your assignment fee (in other words your max offer to the seller would probably have to be less than 50% of the ARV).

More rentals, a larger multi-unit, another type of commercial, if you run out of time you could always get into fractional NNN if you’re looking for a totally hands off investment. 

There are several types of fall back positions that you can use in a pinch as well including - pocket listings, fractional 1031 compliant properties, and also the option of simply not completing the 1031 and eating the tax.